Gangreen Gang Beginings
by TitanKardinal
Summary: Five oneshot stories of how the Gangreen Gang began. Question. I'm looking for Little arturo in the character select.... is he the one that appears as "Li"?


**This is a group of Gangreen gang origin stories, I'm posting them in the order that they join the gang, so of course first is Ace. (i have the third story written, but not the second... hm.) For those of you who know me on Deviantart, you've probably already read the third story though.**

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Three hundred and sixty five days. They say every year will be different. All fifteen years of my life have basically been the same. I wake up. I get dressed, I go to school, I come home, and I sleep. From there it begins again. There is no change in my days. Fifty two weeks. There is always promise that there will be change, that there will be excitement. The biggest change that there has been is a new video game to come out in the world.

Even if there is change, it is never for the better. As I step into the stone prison once more, as I do every day, I watch the familiar faces pass. The smiles I receive from many. I'm a very popular kid. I sometimes wish I weren't, just for a taste of something more. I know I'm only popular because I have two things that other kids don't. I have looks, and I have money. I'm not saying that everyone around me is ugly, or that everyone around me is broke. I just happen to stick out more than others because of these things.

I want to give all this up. I want change. Everyone around me knows I want change. They promise it to me every day. But every day is the same. I'm desperate. People know I am. People have seen what I've done in my attempts to bring change to my life. All fail, all that I've accomplished is having my girlfriend dump me flat.

I observed the faces as I headed upstairs towards my English class. Something else that I believed needed to be changed. Why should we have to take English year after year when it's the language most of us have spoken since we learned how to say "mama"? We never learned anything in here, so what was the point?

My best friend entered the room and sat down by me. He nudged me in the arm with the same tough smile that he always wore. I knew he was going to ask about my Ex. I didn't want to talk about it but I would answer him anyway.

"So, how's things with Ashley?" he asked me. "Is she knocked up or what?"

"No Rey." I replied. "So shut up and stop asking me that."

Rey had walked in on me and my ex girlfriend. He told me that if she were pregnant that I'd have to name the kid after him, otherwise he'd rat it to the entire school. Not that it would have mattered, if she were knocked up, everyone would've known it was me anyway. But no one even knows what happened, except for Rey, Ashley and myself.

"C'mon Ace, you know you love that chick so go get her!" Rey taunted.

"Shut up Rey." I ordered. He was wrong, he didn't know if I loved her or not. And to be honest, I don't think I did. I think I may have been in lust rather than in love. In fact, that's probably all high school relationships are… Lust, never love… only lust.

Our teacher told us to pass forward our assignments. I pulled mine out of my book bag, and set it on my desk; I'd finished about two thirds of the assignment. I didn't care, a C was better than nothing. It wasn't my fault though. If the writing assignments weren't so boring, then PERHAPS I'd be more willing to do them. But no, instead we were assigned, "write an essay on what the world would be like if there was no dirt" or some such nonsense, I don't even remember the topic.

Rey began to nudge me again, I turned angrily to him. He looked desperate and gave me his pleading look. At this point I knew he hadn't even started the paper. I shook my head and pushed my unfinished essay to the corner of my desk, away from him. He pleaded with me again, but I refused to give him my essay. My grade was falling as it was, I didn't need another zero in the grade book, especially on an essay grade.

"Rey, do you have your essay?" the teacher asked him.

"Uh, well, Mr. Sanchez, you see… It's like this… I typed up my entire essay last night, and just as I was about to save, the power went out!" Rey said. I shook my head to myself. I knew that story wouldn't fly, the program we were all supposed to use had memory back up in case this sort of thing were to happen.

"What about the memory back up?" Mr. Sanchez asked. What did I tell you? That story wouldn't pass.

"Well you see, then when the computer recovered the data, my printer wouldn't work! But once I got it to work, the ink cartridge was empty!" Rey continued. I sighed to myself. Why couldn't he say 'I didn't do it, give me an F'?

"You should have saved it to a disk and brought it here and printed it here Rey." Mr. Sanchez pointed out.

"Well, you see, I was going to do that, but then when I finally found a blank disk, the disk drive wasn't working on my computer either! And the file was too big to e-mail it to my folder here." Rey lied. I couldn't believe how much he stretched out this lie, it was crazy.

Mr. Sanchez sighed and turned to me. "What about you Anthony? Do you have your essay?"

I cringed, hearing my real name. I hated my real name, Anthony Carlton Ebbler. Why didn't he take the hint that I preferred being called Ace? "It ain't very good teach, but I got it." I said holding it up to him.

"Anthony… say 'It isn't very good, Mr. Sanchez, but I have it." He said to me.

"That's what I just said!" I yelled.

"No, you used improper grammar and sentence structure, Anthony. Unless you say the sentence correctly, I won't accept your paper."

"BUT THAT'S NOT FAIR!" I yelled. "Why should I say your sentence right if you don't even say my name right?!"

"I say your name just fine." Mr. Sanchez said.

"No! I hate being called Anthony! My name is ACE!" I complained. I got up from my seat to be at eye level with my teacher. I was getting very close to beating him senseless. Let's see him talk good English after that!

"Sit down, Anthony." He said. "Or do I have to send you to the principal's office?"

It wasn't like being sent to the principal was anything new. I was sent there all the time for mouthing off. But it was usually just this class that I lost my temper, and it was mainly because I 'didn't use proper English' or because Mr. Sanchez kept getting my name wrong. It was never different, always the same.

Rey looked up at me and motioned for me to sit. I glared at him, but sat down anyway.

"Now what do you say, Anthony?" he asked me.

I sighed and said "It isn't very good, Mr. Sanchez, but I have it." Mr. Sanchez took my essay and went to the front of the class room to rant about some random literature that none of us really cared about. Or at least I didn't care about it. I put my head down on my desk, not really listening at all. What was the point? I'd forget all this crap once summer arrived.

Rey and I sat right next to Mr. Sanchez's desk, in the back of the class room. In a way this was a good thing. Mr. Sanchez was usually lecturing at the front of the classroom, so his desk was USUALLY empty. But sometimes Mr. Sanchez would sit at his desk and make sure Rey and I 'stayed out of trouble.' Rey began to chuckle to himself. I looked at him questioningly. He pulled a box of tacks out from his jacket and pulled three tacks from it.

I shook my head at him to warn him NOT to put the tacks on Mr. Sanchez's chair, but Rey ignored me and put them on there anyway. I wasn't about to get up and take them off the chair, because that would only get me in more trouble. Oh well, at least this time Mr. Sanchez couldn't blame me for it. I have no idea why Mr. Sanchez hates me so much!

Towards the end of the period, I'd forgotten about what Rey had done to Mr. Sanchez's chair. He headed back to his desk to sit down as the announcements came on the intercom. Hardly anyone ever listened to them, most of the time everyone just chatted or played cards or something. But today at the beginning of the announcements, everyone was laughing.

Mr. Sanchez sat down heavily, but stood up quickly shouting in pain. This is what caused the laughter. Mr. Sanchez pulled the tacks off his chair and looked at his class. Rey was laughing hard and put his arm around me. "PRICELESS ACE!" he cheered. It was more of a self cheer, but Mr. Sanchez took it as praise to me.

"Anthony! Go to the principal's office right NOW!" he ordered.

"But I didn't do nothin'!" I argued honestly.

"PRINCIPAL!" he shouted back.

"FINE!" I got up in a huff, grabbed my bag and walked out of the classroom. I didn't go to the principal's office though. What was the point if the bell was going to ring in three minutes anyway? So I went to Rey's locker to get something to read. Rey had a bunch of old books and magazines and whatever stowed in his locker, so we could just come and grab something whenever we felt like it. I didn't really know what I wanted to take, so I just grabbed a book at random. It ended up being one of the few manga books he kept in there, the Death Note series. I never read it before, but I guess I would now. I shoved it in my bag and slammed the locker door.

About fifteen seconds later the bell rang, so I headed to chemistry. This was one of my classes that I sort of enjoyed. At least this teacher could get my name right. I sauntered over to my classroom at the end of the science hall. I didn't know, or care, what we were doing, just as long as we did SOMETHING interesting.

It turned out we were doing a lab that day. We were dehydrating some sort of crystal copper solution. I was lucky enough to be partnered with one of the smarter kids in the class. But I didn't really think it was lucky, I found him to be rather annoying.

The Bunsen burner wouldn't light. My lab partner, being as smart as he is couldn't figure out why. It was actually a really obvious solution. I hadn't turned the gas on yet. I knew that I hadn't, but he wasn't sure so he decided to ask me.

"Ace, did you remember to turn on the gas?"

"Yes, Tony, I turned on the gas." I lied.

"Hmm, the lighter must not be working." Tony said. He got up to get a new lighter from Professor More. While he was gone I turned the gas on almost as high as it would go. I had a little plan in mind. When Tony and Prof. More returned, I proclaimed that I had turned the gas off in their absence, and turned the methane gas up the rest of the way. Prof. More had gotten the new lighter from his drawer and tried to light the Bunsen burner for us. I did my very best to keep a straight face. It was especially hard to do so when I watched the huge flaming pillar shoot up and catch the ceiling on fire. I pretended to panic. Tony passed out on the floor.

"CLASS!" Prof. More instructed "Please evacuate the classroom immediately." Just as we all exited, the emergency sprinklers activated in the classroom and the hallway and drenched us all. I had to admit this was not one of my brighter ideas, but it was a fun thing to do. Though it didn't give me the rush I desired. I still felt completely unmoved.

During lunch Rey greeted me as usual. But to my surprise Ashley was with him. They were probably going out now. It wouldn't surprise me in the least. Why else would she come within ten feet of me?

"Okay you two." Rey said. "You're both here, I'm gonna go get a burger, and when I come back I expect you two to be making out like no tomorrow." And with that, Rey left. I still don't know why he's so insistent on Ashley and me being a couple.

We sat in silence. No we didn't, we sat in a loud racket of chatter and shouting of other students in the cafeteria. But for us, it was silence for neither of us spoke. I wasn't going to break the ice, so I just took out my algebra book and tried to finish last night's assignment before sixth period. Ashley was still staring at me as I ignored her presence.

She took a deep breath, so I glanced up at her. She opened her mouth to say something and what she said was. "Fat penguin."

"Excuse me?" I sat up and looked straight at her.

"I needed something to break the ice." She said.

"You got that joke from me." I said, looking back down at my math.

"I know, it's still funny." She said.

"I don't want to get back together with you Ashley." I said flatly.

"I know. I don't want to get back with you either." She said. Well at least we were on the same page.

"Then why start up a conversation?" I asked, scratching down the answer to one of the last few problems.

"No point sitting here without talking." She said.

"You could leave you know." I said. It would have actually been helpful to me if she were to leave me alone, so I could get this done and still have time to get something from the lunch line.

"Just because we're not dating anymore doesn't mean we can't still be friends." She said.

"That may be true, but I don't really give a damn." I said looking back at her. "You're only here because of Rey. So why not ask him out if you're so attached to him?"

"I don't like Rey." She said. "Rey's too obnoxious."

Right on cue, Rey returned with his lunch trey and put me in a headlock. "What did I say before I left Acie?" he asked giving me a noogie.

"Let go of me Rey!" I struggled to free my neck.

"Why aren't you two making out?" he demanded.

I pulled my head free from his arm. I could feel his disgusting armpit sweat on my neck and could smell it too. "Because we don't want to." I said. "I don't, she don't, we don't."

"Aw c'mon! Acie, who's gonna name their first kid after me now?" Rey complained.

"Tell you what Rey, I'll name my first born son after you, and I'll even let you keep him if you want! I don't give a damn! Take ALL my kids if you want, BECAUSE I'M NOT GOING TO HAVE ANY!" I shouted. Rey was used to me losing my temper. He knew I hated kids and that if I were to get married that I'd never allow my wife to have children.

"Damn! Take it easy Acie!" Rey said. "I was just kidding! But seriously, you two better make up."

"I'm out of here." I said and stood up, taking my math book with me.

"Ace! Ace come back! I was just kidding!" Rey called after me. The only reply I gave to him was holding up my right hand with my middle finger raised high. I was severely pissed off right now. I have no idea why I hang out with Rey, because all it results in is me getting like this. Every day I say I'm going to blow him off and just be alone, but every single day I still meet up with him. How can I expect change if I can't even give it to myself?

I'd worked myself up so much that I started to feel sick. So instead of eating lunch I headed to the Nurse's office. She of course couldn't find anything wrong with me and just had me lay down for a moment. It didn't help, I still felt horrible and angry. If anything it made me feel worse. I just wanted to go somewhere else for a while, get away from school. But what were the chances of that?

Apparently they were pretty good odds, since the nurse instructed me to go home.

"You don't seem to be getting any better, so I think it's best you went home to rest. What is your phone number? I'll call your mother for you."

"My parents are both at work. I walked to school." I said.

"Oh, alright, are you sure you're well enough to walk home?" she asked me.

"I'll be fine." I got up and went to the front lot. I didn't go home. Why the hell would I do that? There's nothing to do there anyway. No, instead I went to the park where the elementary school kids had all gotten out of class already and were playing there. I grumbled to myself and glared at the putrid children. Oh how I loathed their existence. Though I guess we were all children at one point, even if I refused to admit it.

I wasn't sure how long I'd been zoned out here before it hit me. I wasn't remembering something, no. I was hit in the face with a big red rubber ball. Some punk kid thought it would be funny to kick a ball directly at my head apparently. I held my recently red rubber smacked face and picked up the ball that struck me. A little boy ran over to me and stopped in his tracks. Apparently I looked as angry as I felt, because he appeared to cower just a little.

"Gee, sorry mister!" he said. If he was so sorry, then why did he hit me in the first place? "Can I have my ball back?"

Too frustrated to know what the hell I was doing, I shot a glare at him. "Oh! You want your ball back?" I asked sarcastically. The little boy nodded frightened. I was too pissed off at the ball to care. I took a pen from my pocket and stabbed it into the ball. The kid watched the air hiss out of his toy as tears welled in his eyes. "If you didn't want it popped, then MAYBE you should watch where you throw it!" I yelled at him.

I watched as the boy ran away, crying for his mother. All I could do was laugh to myself at his pain. I decided I'd had enough of the park and headed home. I pass past the middle school on my way home, and unfortunately for me, the school was just letting out, so once again a bunch of short people are running around me screaming, all excited about going home and wasting there lives watching television and playing video games. Sure that's what I was about to do, but that's a whole different story!

I noticed in the wave of middle schoolers a small bubble around one kid. He was hunched over and was in need of a shower and a hair cut. He looked greasy and ungroomed, which probably explained the bubble around him. Though in a moment somehow his eyes locked with mine, for just an instant. I couldn't look at this boy, he struck a slight bit of fear in me. His eyes were red and his pupils were slits, rather than ovals. It disturbed me, and I tried to forget it.

In my distraction by the boy with weird eyes, I stumbled on something. No, I stumbled on _someone_. I looked down and saw that I'd knocked over a little girl. Without words I grabbed her shoulder and pulled her to her feet.

"Sorry" I mumbled.

"it's okay." She smiled. She was eating a bag of Swedish fish. I'd never had any before, but I'd heard they were pretty good. "Want some?" she offered me the bag.

Once again, without words, I took some and left her. I chewed on the candy on my way home. I had to admit, they WERE pretty tasty, though I probably wouldn't care in the next few moments, because I'd probably have washed the taste away with a root beer at home.

I entered my home and grabbed the root beer, as I always did, and planted my butt on the couch. My parents weren't home; they always worked late so I had to take care of myself until about nine thirty. I didn't really care, most teenagers like me want their 'me time' as Rey calls it. I enjoyed 'me time', it was quiet, and there were no annoyances to make me want to shred anything around me. Most people think I need anger management for being annoyed so easily, but what I NEEDED was more ME TIME!

I propped my feet up on the coffee table in front of me and downed the rest of my soda before simply dozing off. It's not like I had anything else to do. Nothing interesting ever happened anymore, so I spent my time doing nothing.

I slept through the afternoon pretty easily. At about eight thirty there was a loud knock at my door. It woke me up and I fell off the couch in surprise. I glanced up at the clock. My parents weren't supposed to be home for another hour, so I figured it must've been Rey at the door.

"It's open!" I yelled, and the door opened. As expected, it was Rey. What did he want now? He had this stupid grin on his face, which made me roll my eyes. "What?" I demanded.

"C'mon!" he said. I knew he was up to something stupid, there was no question about it. I really wanted to wipe that grin off his face and tell him to get lost, but I was curious.

"C'mon what?" I said with slight wonder in my tone.

"C'mon, let's go!" he said.

"Go _where?_" I pressed.

"I got somethin' to show you! Come ON!" he said and turned to leave "Get your keys, you're driving!"

I raised my eyebrow, but followed, taking my car keys with me. If I was driving then certainly this was something stupid. Usually Rey drove because he actually was old enough to have a license. I'd never been caught as an underage driver though so we were lucky there.

"Rey, what the hell are we doing?" I asked as we got in my car.

"Just go where I tell you." He said. "Go over to Maple road, okay?"

Now I knew he was just out of his mind. Maple Road was where a lot of horrible stuff went down. Gambling, drinking, racing, really stuff a fifteen year old sophomore shouldn't be doing. So naturally I was eager to go.

We reached Maple in a matter of minutes and I waited for Rey to tell me what to do next.

"Park by that building over there." He pointed to a building with the windows boarded up. I obliged and we got out of the car.

"Rey, what the hell are we doing here?" I asked again.

"You'll see. My cousin found this place." He said knocking on the door of the boarded up building.

"Jack you mean?" I asked

"Yeah!" Rey said. He waited for a minute then knocked twice, paused then knocked four times.

"Whacha want?" a voice said from inside. I recognized it as Rey's cousin Jack.

"Let us in Dumbass" Rey shouted.

"Let us in Dumbass, WHAT?" Jack said.

"NOW!" Rey yelled.

The door swung open and an arm shot out and threw itself around Rey's neck. "Hey there Rey." Jack said, noogieing Rey.

"Again, WHAT IN THE HELL ARE WE DOING HERE REY?!" I yelled.

Jack let go of Rey and instead threw his arm around my neck. "Relax, Acie, We're just gonna have some fun is all." He led us into the wreck of a building and I saw at least fifteen tables set up with card dealers and people gambling at each table.

"How in the hell…?" I started to ask. But I shut up and figured I shouldn't be surprised. There were two things Jack always did. He always let Rey know what he was doing, and he always found something illegal to do. In this case it was underground gambling. Where Jack was old enough to gamble and drink, Rey and I were not. But no one here knew that, and as that thought crossed my mind, a sly grin crossed my face.

"Someone's happy." Rey said, nudging me.

"Told ya this'd perk 'im up Rey" Jack said. "Now go have fun you two."

Rey and I went to a Black Jack table, and as we approached I pulled a pair of sleek sunglasses from my pocket and slid them casually onto my face.

"You gentlemen gonna join us?" the dealer asked.

"You know it." I smirked and sat down.

There were three guys other than me and Rey, each with a high marked bill placed in front of them. "So what's your wager gentlemen?" the dealer said to us. Rey put down a fifty and looked at me. I smirked again and placed two hundred dollars. "That's a bit of a high wager, are you sure?"

"Do I LOOK unsure to ya?" I asked.

The dealer said no more and dealt around the table. My first card ended up being a queen, and that made me grin right away, Rey got a king, same suit as my queen. The second card was dealt, and I strummed my fingers on the table waiting for my card. My grin widened as an ace of spades turned up in front of me.

"I do believe that's black jack, man." I said casually.

"Awesome luck Ace." Rey said as he was dealt another king.

The dealer paid me four hundred for my black jack, and then I watched the other players. The first guy busted, and lost a hundred dollars. The second guy stayed at nineteen while the third guy actually got his 21.

It was Rey's turn now. He split his kings and put out another fifty. The dealer turned over a five.

"Hit me" Rey said. The dealer turned over a two. Rey paused a second, glanced at me, then sighed. "I'll stay."

"Alright." The dealer said and turned to Rey's other king. He turned over the card and it ended up being an ace of clubs.

"And that sir," I said. "Is Black Jack."

"That it is." The dealer said and paid Rey a hundred bucks. The dealer then dealt himself his cards, and made 21. So the third guy pushed, and Rey and the second guy both lost fifty bucks.

As the night went on, my winnings only increased. I did lose a few hands when we went over to the Texas Hold 'em table, but my winnings canceled out my losses. I'd also had a couple drinks while I was there. Not too much since I still had to drive home. And I hoped that my breath didn't smell too much like scotch when I got home. I'd hate having to explain that one to my parents.

I was about to start another round of Hold 'em when I flagged a waitress over to get me another drink. I was watching my cards when she reached the table.

"What can I get for you Ace?" She asked me.

"Just a beer this time toots." I said. "Bud select if ya got it."

"Sure thing Acie." She walked away and I continued to play my hand.

Rey stared at me for a second then slapped me on the back of my head.

"OUCH! THE HELL WAS THAT FOR REY?!" I demanded.

"Are you that unobservant or are you just an idiot?" he asked me.

"What?" I asked.

"Did you not recognize that waitress?" he asked.

"No. Why?" I looked over to where my waitress was coming back with my beer. I stared in disbelief. Ashley was walking back to me her hair held up in a red flower clip and a black strapless dress that only came half way down her thighs with red lace. "The hell's she doin' here?" I whispered to Rey.

"I dunno, I didn't know she'd be here. I swear." He mumbled. I couldn't tell if it was a lie or not.

Ashley set my beer down next to me and smiled at me. "It's your move Ace." She said looking at the table.

I looked at my hand and then at the cards on the table. Nothing went together, so I folded. The other guys at the table groaned since I'd been doing so well all night.

"The hell are y'doin' here Ash?" I asked her.

"Working." She said. "What's it look like?"

"Why're ya workin' here?" I stood up and walked away from the table to let Rey finish his hand.

"Well it pays pretty damn good and I have to make money somehow." She said.

"Yer younger than I am! Yer not old enough to work!"

"And you're not old enough to drink, but I still gave you a beer, didn't I?" she replied. "And I really do need to raise money."

"Fer what? College? That's three years from now!" I hissed.

"Two and a half really, but no. It's not for college." Ashley said.

"What for then?" I demanded.

She sighed. "You won't like the answer."

"Tell me." I snapped.

"To raise our child." Ashley said.

At that moment I felt like the floor dropped out from under me and that I was going to fall to the center of the earth. I managed to stay on my feet though and just stared at her.

"I'm sorry… what was that?" I asked hoping I somehow misheard or misunderstood what she said.

"I'm pregnant Ace." She said to me.

"No."

"I am."

"No. Yer not." I said. "Yer liein' I know you are."

"I am not. We broke up a month ago, I'm about six weeks along." She said. "I didn't tell you because I knew you'd be a whiney bitch about it."

"Get rid of it." I said.

"What?"

"Get rid of it! Get an abortion!" I yelled.

"No!" she yelled. "Look, I was going to tell you in a few weeks. So you can help"

"NO!" I cut her off. "I'm not that thing's father! I'm not takin' care of it!"

"Ace!"

"NO!" I yelled again. "No way in hell am I payin' child support for that! So either get rid of it or care for it yerself!"

"Ace!" she yelled again.

By this time there were a lot of people staring at us, Rey included. He'd definitely heard Ashley say she was pregnant. The look on his face would have been priceless in any other situation, but here I just wanted to slap him across the face.

"I'm out of here." I said.

"Ace! Wait!" Rey yelled after me, but I'd already made my way through the room and to the door. I didn't wait for Rey to get to the car, and I drove home. My mind was buzzing with what Ashley had just told me. It couldn't be true. I refused to believe it. I was not going to be a father. Never!

I pulled into my driveway, surprised to see my parents still weren't home. To be honest I was glad they weren't there. I didn't want to explain the alcohol, and I definitely didn't want to explain the baby.

I got inside and found a note on the kitchen table. It was my mother's handwriting. I read it out loud to myself. "Anthony, your father and I went to a movie, be back late. Dinner's on the stove if you haven't already eaten. Love mom." I turned it over and there was another note from in my dad's handwriting "We need to talk. Dad."

I sighed and left my dinner on the stove. I wasn't hungry. I went to my room and lay down.

I didn't realize I'd fallen asleep until the sun shone on my face. I'd fallen asleep with my sunglasses on, so I took them off and went out to the kitchen. My mom had made bacon and eggs for breakfast. It smelled amazing. She and my dad were both sitting at the table.

"Morning" I mumbled.

"Good morning Anthony." My mom said. My parents were the only ones in the world who could get away with calling me Anthony.

"How was the movie?" I asked.

"It was pretty good." My dad said. "Life and Love." He said.

"Chick flick?" I asked.

"Yeah." My dad replied.

"Did you have a nice night Anthony?" my mom asked.

"I've had better." I said.

"What did you do?" my dad asked.

"I hung out with Rey and Jack." I replied. It wasn't a lie. But it wasn't the whole truth either.

"Anthony…" My dad sighed. "I really wish you wouldn't hang out with Rey's cousin. He's nothing but trouble."

"It's not like he's been to jail or nothin'." I said.

"I just don't want you to end up in jail, son." He said. "You need to stop doing things that'll get you in trouble. I know you haven't gotten caught." I shut my mouth. "But you need to stop driving the car until you have your license, you need to stop hanging out with Jack. And you really need to stop drinking."

"Huh?" I didn't know he knew about my drinking.

"I know, Anthony. I've known for a while now. You were drinking last night, too right?"

"No." I lied.

"Either way you need to stop. If you I find out you're still drinking, I'm taking your computer and video games away." He said.

I fell silent and glanced up at my mom. She held a stern look on her face that I recognized as the 'don't come crying to me, I'm not going to help you out of this one' look.

"Is there anything you'd like to talk to us about Anthony?" my dad asked.

I almost wanted to tell them about Ashley, but I held my tongue and shook my head.

"Alright. Well you'd better get ready for school then." My dad said.

I ate my breakfast and went to school. And once again, other than the fact that I now had the knowledge of Ashley's pregnancy in my mind, and Rey bugging me about it, nothing had changed. Everything was exactly the same.

About a month passed and I had done my best to avoid Ashley. She was beginning to show, so there was no questioning it… she was definitely pregnant. However, I still refused to admit that it was mine.

But that didn't fool anyone. Everyone knew it was me. But whenever anyone asked me about it, I'd just ignore them. I'd even been called to the counselor about the situation, but when I was asked I lied through my teeth and said I'd never slept with Ashley and that she was just trying to pin the blame on me.

Ever since this whole thing started I'd been lying a lot more. And not just about Ashley. I lied about my homework, I lied to Rey about where all his missing books were. I lied to that nerd Tony that I'd stolen his lab notebook and turned it in as my own work. The funny thing behind that one is Professor Moore actually bought it. And I've been doing more bad things on Maple Road. I raced Rey's car down the street, and nearly hit an old woman in a wheel chair. My parents believed every lie I fed them. So when they asked why I had a huge cut in my arm, I said that Rey crashed the car and not me, since I wasn't supposed to be driving at all.

It was lunch time and I decided to sit outside today. I leaned against the wall, looking over at the fence, thinking maybe I'd jump it and skip out of the rest of school. Rey walked up to me and interrupted my thoughts.

"Have you seen Ashley?" he asked.

"Do I care?" I asked, lazily.

"She's knocked up with your kid, Ace. You should care." Rey said. He actually seemed like he did care. Maybe HE should take care of the damn baby. It wasn't mine anyway, so it wasn't my problem.

"It's not my kid Rey." I said. "I'm not takin' it."

"It is your Goddamn baby Ace!" Rey yelled.

"Yeah yeah. Whatever. But no, I haven't seen her." I said.

"I'm worried about her." Rey said, looking over the fence.

"Great." I said, toneless.

Rey stared at the fence for a minute then turned back to me. "Let's go find her."

"What?"

"C'mon, we're going to her house." Rey said and grabbed the front of my shirt and started pulling.

"The hell Rey!" I shoved him off. "I'm not goin' to Ashley's house!"

"I'll give you fifty bucks if you do." Rey said.

"Deal" I replied. I couldn't pass up free money.

Rey handed me the money and we went and hopped the fence. There were at least ten witnesses, but I didn't care. Rey's ankle got caught in the bush when we landed on the other side, and then he started freaking out a little.

I stood and stared at him, waiting for him to get loose and when he did he ran six paces away from the bush and stared back at it.

"The hell's your problem?" I asked.

"I saw a snake…" he said.

"Pansy."

"Shut up." Rey headed to the street and I followed him. We couldn't drive anymore since I'd put Rey's car in the shop so it took us longer to get to Ashley's house.

Her mom's car was gone so we figured that Ashley would be home alone if she was here at all. Rey went and knocked on the door. There was no answer so he rang the bell three times.

"Ashley!" he yelled. "Ashley are you here?"

There was no answer still. "C'mon Rey, she's not here. She's probly at her dad's." I said.

"She doesn't go to her dad's anymore, Ace." Rey spat. "ASHLEY!" he yelled again.

"She's probly at school. Y'probly just didn't see her." I said.

"I have a class with her before lunch, she wasn't there, Ace." He growled. He tried to open the door. I expected it to be locked, but Rey was happy to find it open.

"Doesn't this count as breaking and entering?" I asked.

"No, this is just entering. We didn't break anything." Rey said.

I looked around and saw a vase.

"Don't break it." Rey said.

I shrugged and followed Rey up to Ashley's room. The door was closed, so I knew that she was in there. Her door was always open when she wasn't there. "She's probly just sick Rey." I said. "We shouldn't bother her."

"Shut up, Ace." Rey said. "I'm just gonna stop in and say hi."

I sighed and rocked back on my heels. "Just hurry up, Rey." I said.

Rey opened the door. "Ashley?" he called again. I looked over her shoulder and saw her asleep in bed.

"She's asleep, let's go." I said.

"Shut up." Rey said again. He went over to the bed. "Ashley, wake up. It's me Rey."

Ashley didn't move. I went into the room after him. I started to feel a little nervous, but I wasn't sure why.

"Ashley…?" Rey sounded nervous too. He moved closer to the bed.

"Ash? You okay?" I called.

Ashley still didn't move. We both moved closer to her. She looked paler. I held my breath.

"Ashley?" Rey's voice was starting to shake. I looked past Ashley on the night stand where I saw a pill bottle sitting on a piece of paper. "Ashley! ASHLEY!!!" Rey was yelling now.

I glanced back down at Ashley and realized she wasn't breathing. My heart started racing and I grabbed her hand and put my fingers against her wrist. Her skin was cooler than usual. I couldn't find a pulse. I looked up at Rey with panic in my eyes.

He immediately started doing CPR and I grabbed the phone and called 911. "Don't you dare die Ashley!" he yelled. I knew it was already too late; she was probably dead before we even left the school. But my subconscious didn't believe me and called the ambulance anyway.

The ambulance arrived and took Ashley's body with them. I went along too, since I was a lot calmer than Rey. I held her hand in the ambulance. It felt cold against mine. They confirmed before we even got to the hospital what I already knew. She was dead, no chance for revival. I stared at her on the gurney. Her face was so peaceful. Her redish brown hair a little messy, covering her face slightly… her beautiful face… Her soft brown eyes would never open again.

The hospital called Ashley's mom and broke the news to her. I sat and waited at the hospital. By the time she showed up, Rey had joined me. I felt a little bit better with Rey sitting by me. But he seemed angry now rather than upset, but when Ashley's mom walked in, he went over and hugged her and started mumbling apologies to her. She walked over to me and I looked up at her.

"Ms. Tessley…" I said. "I'm so sorry…"

She didn't say a word to me and went to see her daughter. I hung my head, and Rey did not come back to my side.

On the day of the funeral, my parents took off work and let me skip school to pay our respects. I could barely hear anything throughout the service. It was like I had a huge ball of cotton shoved in each ear. There seemed to be a bubble around me and my family. Rey sat on the other side of the church and wouldn't even look at me.

When she was buried, Rey even stayed on the other side of the casket. I tried to find him afterwards, but he had gone off without me. My parents figured I didn't want to talk to them about it, and let me go off on my own. I went to Maple Road, because I figured that Rey probably went there.

I gave the secret knock on the door to the gambling house and Jack called out "Whacha want?"

"Let me in, Dumbass!" I yelled.

"Let me in.."

" NOW!" I didn't even wait for him to finish. Jack swung the door open, saw me and tried to shut the door. I put my hand on the door to hold it open. "Is Rey here?"

"He doesn't want to talk to you." Jack said.

"Where is he?" I demanded.

"You're not welcome here Ace." Jack said flatly.

"Like hell I'm not!" I shoved passed him and looked for Rey. He wasn't hard to find. The only guy here actually other than Jack. He was sitting at the bar with his head down. I went up behind him and put my hand on his shoulder.

Rey lifted his head and looked at me. His face turned to a grimace and he pulled his shoulder away. "The hell do you want?" he spat.

"You've been avoidin' me since Ashley died." I said.

"Yeah? What of it?" Rey spat.

"I wanna know why." I said.

"You wanna know why?" he growled. "Maybe because IT'S YOUR FAULT SHE'S DEAD!"

"MY FAULT?!" I yelled.

"Yes! YOUR FAULT!" Rey spat.

"I DIDN'T DO NOTHIN'!" I shouted at him.

"Get out!" Rey shouted.

"What?"

"GET OUT!"

"MAKE ME!" I screamed back. Rey punched me in the face and knocked me down.

"GET OUT YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Rey screamed. I was about to retaliate, but Jack grabbed the back of my neck and pulled me up. I felt him put his hand in my pocket as he dragged me to the door.

"You'd better not come back her Ace." Jack warned as he threw me on the street. The door slammed and I jumped back up and pounded on the door.

"LET ME IN!" I yelled. "DAMN IT REY!" I kicked the door and turned away from the door and headed down the street. "It's not my fault." I mumbled to myself. I put my hands in my pockets and felt something in one that wasn't there before. Jack must have put it there. I pulled it out, it was a piece of paper.

I unfolded it and recognized Ashley's handwriting. I sighed and read it. "To whomever finds this note, I hope it's you Rey. I'm having trouble sleeping, so I took something to help. I took too much, and I know I did, so I probably won't wake up. I just want everyone to know that if Anthony Ebbler would have just taken responsibility for his child I wouldn't have killed the both of us. Everything I've told people is true. Anthony is the father of this baby. He didn't want him, and he didn't want me. Everything is his fault, and I hope he regrets what he's done. I'm sorry, Mom. I want you to know that I love you. Ashley"

I stared at the note blankly. She blamed me for this. She blamed me for taking her own life. And it seemed Rey and Jack blamed me too. So I wasn't going to take care of the baby. That's no reason to kill herself. If she really cared about the damn baby, she could have put it up for adoption or something, but now she was responsible for the death of not only herself but her child too. I folded the note and tucked it in my pocket. It was NOT my fault. Ashley was just unreasonable, and now her friends and family were suffering for it. I felt a little sorry for her mother… but that was it.

Over the next couple weeks I continued to receive glares and putdowns from my peers. I could tell they were orchestrated by Rey. He'd told everyone that it was my fault Ashley killed herself, and that she'd even said so herself. But he didn't have any proof anymore since Jack slipped me the note. But still people believed him, which surprised me because hardly anyone believes a word Rey said.

I figured they trusted him now because of Ashley's death and how I was taking it since the funeral. When I'd read the note, I became numb towards the whole thing. If everyone was going to blame me for it, I was going to have nothing to do with it. But walking down the halls and hearing murmurs of "monster" "heartless" and "murderer" were beginning to get old. Monster I could deal with. I'd come to terms that I am a bit of a monster. Heartless. Sure, I was heartless. I knew that too. But that didn't really happen until I'd found out Ashley was pregnant. But Murderer was where I drew the line. I hadn't killed anybody, and I wasn't going to be blamed for it either.

I decided it was time for this to stop. After school on Friday I looked for him. I knew he had Chemistry last period and usually stopped by his locker before he left for home. I cut my last class, gym, to try and catch him as he was leaving Chemistry. When the bell rang and the class filed out, I didn't see him. I clenched my teeth in frustration and hurried over to Rey's locker. There he was, gathering his books. I couldn't imagine how in the heck I missed him leaving his class. He shut his locker and started to walk away as I caught up with him.

"We need to talk." I said, grabbing his shoulder.

"I have nothing to say to a murderer." He spat.

"I'm not a murderer, Rey!" I growled.

"Then why is Ashley dead?" he demanded.

"Because the stupid bitch killed herself!" I yelled.

"Because of you." He said flatly.

"Just because she was stupid enough to kill herself doesn't make it my fault!"

"I know Jack gave you the note Anthony." He said. Since when did he call me Anthony? "So you know that she blamed you too."

"Just because she blamed me doesn't make it my fault."

"Well maybe if you gave a rat's ass about how other people felt then she wouldn't have gone and committed suicide!" Rey shouted. We reached the top of the stairs and stopped.

"It wasn't my fault Rey!" I yelled. "Ashley killed herself! I didn't feed her sleeping pills!"

"IF IT WEREN'T FOR YOU SHE WOULDN'T HAVE EVEN HAD A REASON TO BE DEPRESSED!" Rey screamed.

"IT WASN'T MY FAULT REY!" I repeated.

"YOU'RE A GOD DAMN MURDERER ANTHONY!" He yelled.

I clenched my teeth. "Rey, if you call me a murderer ONE MORE TIME"

"You. Are. A. MURDERER!"

I pulled my fist back and punched Rey as hard as I could in the mouth. He stumbled back a step and held his jaw. His lip had busted on the left corner. He glared at me and spat out blood. "You've so been asking for this, Anthony." I was ready to fight Rey, but what I wasn't ready for was his tackle. My back had been to the stair case and I wasn't ready to catch him. The two of us started to fall down the stairs.

We hit the stairs and rolled a couple of times. I grabbed Rey's shirt and rolled him so that he was beneath me, and socked him in the face again. He grabbed my wrist as we continued to fall and tried to pull me back down, but I wouldn't yield. About half way down Rey hit his head pretty hard on the edge of one of the steps and I twisted my arm trying to grab the banister. We hit the ground with a hard thud and I ended up on Rey's chest with my arm across his neck.

Immediately I got up and kicked Rey in the side. "GET UP!" I yelled.

Rey didn't get up. There was a crowd around us that had been yelling since Rey had tackled me. I kicked Rey again "GET UP!" I yelled again. He didn't move. He didn't seem phased by my kicks.

"Oh my God…" I heard someone say behind me as I continued to kick Rey and tell him to get up.

Tony, the nerd from my chemistry class, moved forward. "Ace, Stop!" he yelled. I didn't stop, and Tony pushed past me and knelt down by Rey.

"OUT OF THE WAY TONY!" I shouted.

"What's going on over here?" a teacher's voice called. It was Mr. Sanchez followed by Professor Moore.

"GET OUT OF THE WAY TONY!!!" I yelled again, trying to push him back. Mr. Sanchez grabbed me in a full nelson as Professor Moore knelt with Tony.

Tony looked up at me with the most horrified expression. "Ace…" his voice was barely audible.

"What did you do?" Mr. Sanchez mumbled with a tone that could match Tony's expression.

Professor Moore stood up and turned to me, also horrified. "His neck is broken." He said. In that instant, all my anger turned to fear. Did he mean…?

"Ace…" Tony said again. "You killed him…"

No… Oh GOD no! "No…" I whispered. No NO NO!! I couldn't have killed Rey. Not him. Even if he was the biggest prick in the whole school, he was still my best friend. He couldn't be dead. "Let me go!" I struggled against Mr. Sanchez.

"Tony, go call the police." Mr. Sanchez said.

"NO! LET ME GO!!! GET OFF ME!" I managed to pull free from his hold and ran over to Rey. He hadn't moved at all. "REY YOU ASS GET UP!" I was screaming desperately. A moment ago I wanted him to get up to fight… now I just wanted him to get up to prove he was okay. But Rey didn't move. He didn't get up. He just lay there, his neck so obviously broken the way his head was bent to the side in such an unnatural way. I didn't see how I missed it when I got up in the first place. It was clear as day. Rey's neck was broken and he'd died from it.

I couldn't deny it this time… It was my fault.

I didn't know what else to do.

I ran.

I pushed my way through the crowd and out the doors. I ran as fast as I could until I got home. I was breathing heavily… my parents weren't home yet. I felt so sick. I was responsible for the death of three people. I'd killed Ashley, I'd killed my child, and I'd killed my best friend, Rey. They were going to come for me. I knew it. They were going to lock me up forever. I'd killed three people.

No. I was not going to jail. That punishment was too good for me. I walked through the house until I got to the kitchen. My parents had an old fashioned gas stove. This was my solution. I turned the gas on one of the burners, waited a moment then leaned over it and took a deep breath of gas. Yes. This would bring justice to my friends. I took in another breath. I started to feel lightheaded. I took another breath.

I saw the image of my mother in my head all of a sudden. "AAAH!!!" I stood up straight and turned around. My mother wasn't there. I heaved a couple breaths. No, I couldn't kill myself. What would my parents think? I decided to go outside and clear my head of thoughts and gas.

I took a walk down the street, breathing in fresh air as deep as I could. I was wondering what I was going to do with myself. I really had no idea what to do now. Maybe I'd try and talk to my dad about it. I wonder what he would say about all this. Probably not very good things. I figured my parents would find out eventually, but I wasn't going to call them up and say "I just killed my best friend" I'd wait until about ten and go home to tell them, that is if they hadn't already been contacted by the school.

As I walked I saw a younger girl who I guesstimated was about twelve on the street. She was sitting on the curb, holding her knee and when I got closer I noticed it was bleeding.

"Hey kid!" I yelled. She looked up at me. "You okay?"

She nodded. "My sister's getting me a band-aid" she said. "How are you?" She asked.

I was a little surprised that this girl would ask me how I was. "Do I know you?" I asked her.

She nodded. "We met once." She said. "a few months ago, you knocked me down."

"Oh. Sorry." I said. I sat down by her.

"It's fine, you helped me up. Don't you remember, Mister?" she asked me.

"Mister? The name's Ace, Kid." I said.

"Well, Ace, you don't remember me." She held out a bag of Swedish fish. "Remember these?"

I did remember candy. "Oh right. I remember I knocked you down cuz I was distracted by some weird lookin' kid."

The girl blushed. "You mean Sanford." She smiled.

"You like that kid?" I asked her. She nodded. "Take it from me kid, love is overrated, only gets you into trouble. It got me into trouble. Y'probly shouldn't even talk to me. I'm in a lot of trouble."

"Because of love?" she asked.

"It started there." I replied. "I'm a real bad guy."

"No you're not. You're nice." She said.

Nice? Never heard that one before. "You got no idea kid."

"Yeah I do. You're nice." She said again.

"If you say so, Kid." I shrugged.

"Sharon." A woman's voice called from behind us. There I saw the hottest woman I'd ever seen. She had long dark hair and yellow green eyes, just like the girl beside me. She looked to be about seventeen. She knelt down by my young companion and took a hold of her knee. She wiped off her sister's knee and put a bandage on it. She looked up at me and smiled. "And who are you?"

"That's Ace. He's nice." The girl said.

"Scarlett" the woman said and held out her hand. I couldn't help myself I shook her hand. She was just so… HOT! "Sharon, put the candy away, you're going to get so fat." She scolded.

Sharon frowned and put away her candy. She hopped up and I stood up too. I was a little taller than Scarlett, I wondered if she knew I was only fifteen. I glanced down at Sharon and realized that she and her sister looked a lot alike. I bet that once Sharon was older she'd be just as hot as her sister, that is if she didn't get fat eating all the candy.

"It was nice to meet you Ace." Scarlett said. "Let's go Sharon." She took her sister's hand and walked off.

"Bye Ace!" Sharon called back to me. She threw back something and I caught it. I looked at what she threw me and it was her bag of candy. I looked up at her and she waved and turned around to walk with Scarlett.

I turned and walked the other way and took some of the Swedish fish from the bag and ate them. I decided that my best bet would be to go to Maple Street. I could definitely kill some time there.

I got there and thank GOD Jack wasn't there. I wondered if he knew about Rey. If he did, he'd probably want to skin me alive. I didn't blame him. Even though that little girl made me feel a little better about myself and I got to meet her hot sister, I still felt like shit.

I played cards on the street, rather than in the club, with a couple of guys I didn't know. We didn't play for money because they were broke, and I didn't care. I was basically just trying to think of how I could tell my parents what had happened. Nothing I thought of would work. I decided I'd just tell them straight and if they wanted to throw me out then I wouldn't blame them. It was getting dark, and I checked my watch. It was nine thirty. So I started to make my way home. I started to grow nervous as to what I would tell my parents. This was worse than anything I'd ever done. Well no freakin' DUH! I KILLED THREE PEOPLE! This wasn't something that most people would take lightly.

I was about a block away from my home when I smelled smoke. At first I didn't think anything of it. Probably just a neighbor lit their grill… at nine forty two at night. That didn't make sense. I looked up at the sky and saw black smoke in the air. At this point I panicked. I was sure that smoke was coming from my neighborhood. I started to run again. I saw the flames from the end of my street.

My house was burning down. There was just no way. Why was this happening to me? My dad was gonna kill me. Unless. Oh no. What if they were inside? I ran into the house without thinking. "MOM!! DAD!" I yelled. "WHERE ARE YOU!?"

The flames licked the walls and surrounded everywhere. "MOM!" I yelled again. I ran through the flaming rooms, and started to hear sirens outside. "DAD!!" I yelled, breathing in smoke. I choked and coughed. "Mom!!" it was getting too hard to yell. I made my way to the kitchen. The fire was erupting off the burners on the stove. "shit" I cursed and made my way over to the burner and saw that the gas was still on. "SHIT!" I swore again. I turned the stove off and moved my way through the fire trying to find my parents.

"Mom… Dad…" I was growing weak. I got down on my knees and crawled, it was getting too hard to breathe. "Where are you?" I pushed their bedroom door open, looked up at the bed, and before I could tell if they were there or not I collapsed on the ground, choking. After a moment I blacked out. This was really it. I was consumed in the flames and was about to join Rey and Ashley in death… though I doubted I'd see either of them in the afterlife.

I opened my eyes to find myself under a sheet. The heat of the flames was gone and everything seemed calm, even a little cold… actually a lot colder than I would have liked. I sat up and found myself surrounded by tables with lumps under sheets. And at the end of the sheets were feet. I was in the morgue. I looked down at myself and found that I was naked. I was gone. I was dead. But I'm not anymore. What in the hell happened to me? How did I get out of my house? Were my parents ever found? Were they alive?

I pulled the sheet around me and pushed the door of the morgue open. I looked around and wondered if I could sneak out of here somehow. It would be pretty hard for a fifteen year old living dead guy to sneak around a hospital in the nude. I'd done more difficult things in my life. I managed to sneak past everyone and found myself in an alley outside.

My next obstacle was clothes. How in the hell was I supposed to go get clothes?

"Hey buddy!" someone called behind me. I turned and saw a ragged looking guy in tattered clothes. Normally I would criticize this kind of person for his poor appearance, but right now I figured ragged clothes was better than no clothes. I held the sheet around me and stared at him.

"What?" I grunted.

"Why you naked?" he asked.

"Got no clothes." I replied.

"Well C'mon then! Can't be like that!" he said. I stared after him as he walked off, a little confused as to what was going on. "C'mon!" he called again. "Before y'catch a cold!"

I followed him to a dumpster two blocks away. I still wasn't sure what this was going to accomplish. Was he getting me clothes or not? He wandered behind the dumpster and after a minute started throwing things out into the alley. There was a pair of jeans, an old shirt a coat and a pair of socks which I was NOT going to wear.

"There y'go." He said. "Try those on."

I stared in disbelief. He was kidding. Right? But he just stood there and stared so I pulled on the clothes.

They were all too big. I held the jeans up and looked at the guy. "You wouldn't happen to have a belt would you?"

"Sorry guy. Well, later!" he climbed into the dumpster and closed the lid.

"Hey!" I opened the dumpster. "What do you mean later?"

The guy looked up at me. "WHAT'RE YOU DOIN' IN MY HOUSE!" he yelled. "GET OUT OR I'LL CALL THE COPS!"

I backed up and let the lid slam. I stared at the dumpster which contained the clearly insane man. At least he'd given me clothes… which were too big. But they'd do for now. I'd get some more somewhere else.

I waited until nightfall to do anything else and I made my way to a clothing shop. It would be closing in thirty minutes, I figured I'd have enough time in there to find something. I went in and looked around for clothes in my size and after a minute realized I had no money. What was I supposed to do now? Steal them?

Actually that didn't sound like a bad idea. I'd done worse. How bad could stealing be? I hid behind a shelf and waited until the store closed. Once the lights went out and I heard the door lock, I made my way back out into the store. I didn't bother with a dressing room since I was the only one here. I found myself a pair of khaki pants and a white long sleeved shirt with purple sleeves. They were a perfect fit. I left the hobo clothes on the floor and went to look at the shoes. A pair of black boots caught my eye so I grabbed them and went on my way. I thought I'd had enough when I saw this cool looking vest, blue and orange. I grabbed that too and was ready to leave the store but stopped at the front counter.

"Still got no money." I mumbled to myself. I jumped behind the counter and opened the register and took all the money inside. That set the alarm off. I wasn't startled, I just jumped the counter again and broke out of the store and ran, this time not in fear, but from a rush of excitement.

"That was the greatest thing EVER!" I cheered to myself. I'd never felt better in my life. I'd known that I liked bending and even breaking rules, but now that I'd lost so much it was the first thing that really made me feel better.

I made my way down the street and thought maybe I'd go check out the wreckage of my house. When I got there, I saw how black and charred everything was. The skeleton of the house looked like it'd turn to dust if you so much as touched it. The walls were hardly there and all our possessions destroyed. Surprisingly this didn't dull my spirits. Sure I was upset about the whole thing and wondered what happened to my folks, but for some reason, now I didn't care.

I sifted through the ashes of my old room to see if anything possibly made it. I kicked over part of my desk and saw something sparkle in the moonlight. I knelt down and picked up the gleaming object and dusted them off. It was my old sunglasses. I grinned and slid them onto my face. "Glad I didn't lose you." I said to the glasses. "Don't know what I'd do withoucha."

I moved through the scorched rooms until I got out of the wreckage again. I wondered what the heck I was supposed to do now. But strangely enough I felt pretty good about myself. I stayed awake all that night and just wandered the streets of the city. Seeing things in the night life, the way a criminal would.

When I got hungry I went to a twenty four hour convenience store and slipped candy bars into my pockets then grabbed the cheapest thing I could find and went to the counter to pay for it so I wouldn't look suspicious. The clerk didn't suspect a thing and I got away with my second theft of the night.

When the sun rose I figured I needed to find somewhere to sleep. But I couldn't think of where. I wandered around a bit and found myself asleep on a park bench after about an hour.

This was how I lived for the next year or so. I wandered, stole and slept wherever I felt was the most comfortable. Eventually I found a large shack in the dump and made it my pseudo home. I was pretty happy with myself over that time, but it felt weird because I really had nobody to talk to.

I was walking on the outskirts of town one day, I was pretty sure it was the anniversary of Ashley's death, and I heard a commotion nearby. I'd taken to avoiding as many people as I could since I probably had wanted or missing posters all over the place with my face plastered on them. But while I was listening I realized one of the voices seemed rather young. "That's weird" I said to myself. I headed towards the noise and looked around the corner to see a little boy probably about ten years old fighting against six other guys with his bare hands.

"_¡Consiga perdido! ¡No tengo miedo de usted!_" the boy yelled at the other six.

"You're gonna pay you little brat." One of the six said.

"Why doncha pick on someone yer own size?" I yelled out. The six turned and looked at me.

"_¡Salga!_" the boy yelled again, but this time at me. One of the six jerked his head in my direction and three of the guys separated from the group and came my way.

"_¡Funciónele con idiota!"_ the boy yelled at me. Did he just call me an idiot?

Three of the guys rushed at me, but having lived on the streets for a year, I'd learned how to handle myself. I grabbed the first one who got to me and threw him down and shoved the other two against the building next to me.

"Leave the kid alone." I said.

The guy I'd thrown down got up and grabbed my neck. "And what concern of yours is he?" he asked.

"That's none of yer business." I snapped, grabbing his hand to keep him from strangling me. I glanced over to the kid, and he'd knocked one of the other three down and had his little hands around his neck while the other two tried to pry him off. I elbowed the guy gripping my neck in the stomach, turned and threw him down again and stomped on his nuts.

The two I had pinned to the wall grabbed me simultaneously and threw me down on the street where a car swerved to miss me. I jumped back up and tackled one of the guys down.

The kid had knocked out the guy he was strangling and was now being held high above the ground by the other two.

"_¡Puesto me abajo de usted asno!_" he screamed. I punched the guy I tacked in the face and he spat out blood, then ran over to the guy with the kid. I kicked him in the chest and the kid fell on the ground.

"You okay kid?" I asked.

"_Si._" He replied. "_¡Mire hacia fuera!_" he pointed behind me. I turned quickly to see one of the last two guys charging at me. I dodged, but grabbed him by the back of his jacket as he passed. I threw my arm around his neck.

"Leave the kid alone, freak." I spat.

"You'd better let me go, Ace." The guy said.

"Wh…How do you know that name?" I growled.

"What, you go by Anthony now?" he asked.

"Who are you?!" I demanded.

The man screamed, and I looked down to see the kid stab him in the leg. "_Reservado"_

I dropped the guy and looked at him as he held his leg and screamed. "You really don't recognize me?" he managed to scream.

"You're Jack." I said flatly.

"And you're the guy who killed Rey." He spat. "Why don't you just kill me too? You wouldn't care anyway!"

I knelt down by him. "Shut up." I socked him in the face, and he fell silent." I glanced at the kid, and we both shot glares up at the sixth man. He quickly turned tail and ran.

"_¿Está usted bien?_" the kid said.

"I don't speak Spanish kid." I said to him.

"Sorry." He replied. "You okay?"

"Yeah, you?"

"_Si_" he replied. "You know that guy?"

"Nah." I said. "But they won't bother you no more."

The kid shrugged. "They weren't any problem." He said. "So long as I have Maria."

"Maria?" I questioned. The boy pulled out a pocket knife. "Ah." He flipped open the blade and I was surprised to see it was actually a comb. "Wow… What a threat."

"Don't be fooled." He said and flipped open a hidden blade.

"I see." I was impressed. "What's your name kid?"

"Arturo De La Guerra." He gave a slight bow.

"I'm Ace." I said. "What's a kid like you doin' out here anyway?"

"Got no where else to go." He shrugged. "Since my papi went up the river."

"So you're alone then?" I started thinking this kid wouldn't be bad to keep around.

"_Si._ Why?" he asked.

"How old are you?" I asked.

"_Doce_, Twelve." He said. I was surprised, I didn't think he'd be that old. Maybe he was just short.

"Where're you stayin?" I asked.

"Wherever." He said.

"Hm." I thought a second. "How'd you like to stay with me. I got a little place that'd house the both of us just fine."

He seemed to consider a second. "Sure." He nodded. I grinned to myself. Ace and Arturo. We'd watch each other's backs. We'd cut down anyone who got in our way, he and I would be feared by civilized people. I knew this was the beginning of something great. However, I had no idea how great it would end up being. Arturo and I made our way back to my shack in the dump and lived there for a while before our numbers began to grow.

* * *

**Next shall be Arturo. All PPG characters belong to Craig McCracken. All other characters who were never a part of the show are mine.**


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